A Jordan Jolly Jr.
The Kentucky Post, January 13, 1989, page 1
Ex-Judge A J Jolly dead at 64
A J Jolly Jr. a former judge-executive who changed the landscape of Campbell County, died Thursday in Houston following heart surgery. He was 64.
Jolly was elected Campbell County Judge (now called judge-executive) in 1957 and served four terms. He championed health care services for the aging and park services. Campbell County District Judge Lambert Hehl served with Jolly on the fiscal court for 18 years.
"He was a respected throughout the state and he was known for his financial wizardry in developing package plans for financing. He was able to take a small county budget and make it work for him." Hehl said. Jolly played a key role in creation of Lakeside Place Nursing Home.
"He developed a juvenile detention center, which is now defunct," Hehl said,. "He set up Youth Haven Guild, which was helpful before the state got into child social services. He built the 1000 acre park in southern Campbell County. We named that park for him in appreciation.
Jolly and his wife, Vickie lived on a horse farm on Race track Road in Alexandria across from the park that bore his name. Jolly was a regular on the golf course in his retirement years, when he wasn't fishing or working with his horses, his brother, Gordon of Ft. Thomas said. Hehl said Jolly was instrumental in extending water lines to rural Campbell County. Dr. Bob Kratz of Lakeside Place had been a friend of Jolly for years.
"He was a bray guy," Dr. Kratz said. "He was a bomber , a tail gunner in the war. They didn't have much of a life expectancy. He did about 20 trips and he volunteered for more and survived it." That steel nerve and confidence followed him into politics. "He began the expansion of St. Luke Hospital when nobody else wanted to do it. Everybody else said it wouldn't work. But he did it."
Jolly, whose trademark was a cigar, began his political career in 1949 at age 25 when he ran for Campbell County commissioner. He lost, ran again in 1953 and lost again. In 1957 he was elected Campbell County judge. He ran for lieutenant governor in 1967 and lost to Wendall Ford, who is now a US Senator. "Public service was a family way of life," said Bernie Blau, a Newport attorney. "His father was superintendent of schools in Campbell Co. A J Jolly School in Mentor is named after his father. They were always very public-oriented. After my father died, he was like a father to me," Blau noted. "He has been my best friend for the last 20 years or so. I'll always remember him for his great sense of humor."
Jolly attended Xavier University and the University of Cincinnati Law College, where he received a law degree in 1949. Jolly continued to practice law after he retired from political life. Jolly had been in good health since coronary artery bypass surgery in 1982, Blau said. "He was fine up until less than a month ago. Last month he started noticing something was wrong." He underwent bypass surgery Thursday at St. Luke Hospital in Houston. He died at 7:10pm shortly after the surgery.
Tentative arrangements are visitation from 1 to 3 pm Sunday
at the Alexandria Funeral Home; services at 3 pm Sunday at the funeral home;
burial at Grandview Cemetery in Mentor. He is survived by his wife,
Vickie; five daughters, Susan Turney (Perny) of Ft. Mitchell; Janice Westerman of
Louisville; Jennifer Ryan of Ft. Thomas; Karen Jolly of Topeka, Kan.; and Leslie
Berry of Alexandria; two brothers, Gordon Jolly of Ft. Thomas and Chick Jolly of
Mayfield.